http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21023772-5001031,00.html

 

Rockets no nuclear threat

THE type of rockets believed stolen from the Australian Defence Force would
only chip away at a target like Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, a
security expert says. 

Assistant Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas says the reactor is one of a
number of sites believed to have been considered as targets by those in
possession of seven missing rocket launchers.

The launchers, designed to be fired from the shoulder by infantry, have
enough punch to destroy a car, or even a tank, but not a nuclear reactor.

Security consultant Peter Collins says that if the easy-to-use, single-use
rockets were fired into a packed train or bus, they would cause a blast and
shrapnel spray capable of killing people within a 5m radius.

But the former navy intelligence officer says the outdated rockets, which
have a range of 220m and are best used on stationary objects, would have
almost no effect on a building like the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.

"It would chip away the exterior, but the chance of it penetrating the
reactor area of the site would be zero," Collins says.

One of the missing rocket launchers was recovered in a police operation in
Sydney on September 30 last year.

Taha Abdul Rahman, 28, was arrested at a house in Leumeah, in Sydney's
southwest, early on Friday and charged with 17 offences relating to the
receipt, supply and possession of the weapons.

Court proceedings against Rahman were adjourned until this Wednesday.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said Rahman had no
immediate connections to the Australian Defence Force, and no members of the
force were said to be under investigation at this point.

Rather, it is alleged Rahman is part of the chain of supply of the seven
launchers, having allegedly sold them to convicted murderer Adnan "Eddie"
Darwiche in September and October of 2003.

It is alleged that five of them then fell into the hands of Sydney terror
suspects.

Darwiche is serving two life sentences over his role in a string of fatal
shootings in Sydney's southwest in 2003.

It was alleged in court that Darwiche had planned to use one of the rocket
launchers in an attack on a house in Lawford St, Greenacre.

He ended up being talked out of it by an associate and guns were used
instead, killing Ziad Razzak and innocent victim Mervat Nemra.



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